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The Art of Songwriting: Panel 2
Dissecting the craft with a panel of experts.
By: Gina Kay Singerhouse
Jack Rosenquist
It's the glorious days of summer, when the northwoods is covered in an infinite display of colors. The warm glow of the summer sun cultivates the dull spring ground to become a breathtaking show of pure beauty. I can only witness this elegance from my office window. For my beauty is captured in the ever growing pile of albums that we must review.
It was Plato who is credited in saying "Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder." In our jobs, beauty lies within the music that graces our ability to perceive sound.
It is our job to take into consideration every piece of material that is sent to us. Each album is given the appropriate time for us to dissect it to find the absolute best music to recommend to you. It's a job that we conduct very seriously as we take an honest and trustworthy approach. In any given year, we review hundreds of albums. Can you imagine the time it would take for you to listen to all of those songs?
More often than we can tell you, we are sent albums that come with documents that try to influence our reviews. These documents consist of information that try to persuade us to perceive an album in a certain way. Many publications and journalists often fall for this influence, thus creating falsified and or biased reviews. This is due to the fact that these reviewers do not want to take the crucial time to listen to an entire album to gather their own opinion. Nonetheless, we at Strictly Country take pride in always giving you an honest and trustworthy analysis of each album. We have many policies in place that we must follow when critiquing an album, such as taking the necessary time to listen to all of the music contained within.
Back in March, we introduced you to this feature, The Art of Songwriting. What prompted us to do this special column was the fact that we were receiving many albums that consisted of songs that were of poor quality. Many of the songs that we come across frequently feature inadequate songwriting skills. This persuaded and motivated us to delve into what exactly goes into the craft of songwriting.
While recording an episode of Around The Campfire radio show, Jack and I started discussing the various issues that arise about songwriting. Issues like inadequate songwriting and poor quality of songs. Although the discussion never ended up on the show, we felt that it was a monumental issue that we should address.
More often than we will admit, we as fans and listeners of music [as well as other forms of art] tend to think that songs are written in a matter of minutes. When in actuality, songs and other works of art [like this article] take time to create. Some may take merely minutes while others can take hours, days, months and even years!
So to help us all understand the songwriting process we thought that we would open up this discussion to the professionals. I put the call out to some of our friends who happen to be entertainers, songwriters and teachers of songwriting to come together to help us understand and address these issues. In each issue of Strictly Country, we will address another concern about songwriting and we will discuss each of these with our panel of professionals. Let me introduce you to our panel of professionals...
The first to join our panel is Mark 'Brink' Brinkman. Brink is one of the most sought after songwriters in Bluegrass, Country and Gospel genres. His songs have been recorded by some of the most notable entertainers including Larry Sparks, Grasstowne, Don Rigsby, Lou Reid & Carolina, Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road and Dave Adkins. He has won various awards including six Spirit Awards. Today, he continues to write songs and is also a songwriting instructor.
Our next expert is Judy Rodman. Judy hit the country music scene with her 1986 hit song "Until I Met You." Throughout her vocal career, she has sung background vocals for some of country music's most notorious entertainers like Johnny Cash and Tammy Wynette. Prior to the release of her third album, her record label folded. Instead of being in the spotlight of the music industry, Rodman focused on the behind the scenes portion. She has earned a wide variety of awards including the 2016 Spirit Award - President Choice Award for Best Country Album for her album Here We Are, recorded with her husband John Rodman. Today, she is an award winning vocal coach, recording artist, stage and television performer, public speaker, author, multi-genre hit songwriter, studio producer and vocal consultant.
Joining our panel next is Rick Stanley. Rick is the second cousin of the infamous Stanley Brothers, Carter and Ralph Stanley. Growing up Rick spent many hours with his father, Carter and Ralph singing and enjoying time through music. By the age of fifteen, Rick penned the very famous Bluegrass song "Home In The Mountains." The song was originally recorded by Ralph Stanley, however, it was recorded by many other great Bluegrass artists and even earned Rick a Grammy nomination. In the 1990's he held a major publishing deal with Maypop Music and enjoyed touring with Stonewall Jackson. Today, Rick tours with his wife Donna Ulisse as a member of The Poor Mountain Boys. He also continues to write songs and is an instructor for Donna's Songwriting Escape workshops.
Our final professional to join our panel is Donna Ulisse. Donna first emerged onto the music scene in the 1980's as a demo singer and background vocalist in Country music. In 1991, she released her debut album Trouble At The Door. Since then she has merged over to Bluegrass and recorded nine more albums. Donna is another very highly sought after songwriter in Bluegrass. She has earned many numerous award nominations and has earned The Spirit Award's coveted President's Choice Award for Best Bluegrass Album for Hard Cry Moon in 2016. Her songs have been recorded by a variety of artists. In 2014, Donna wrote her first book, The Songwriter In Me, to earn great reviews. Today, she continues to demo, write songs and tour with her band The Poor Mountain Boys. She also is the owner and teacher of Songwriting Escape, a touring songwriting workshop.
Of course I have to add Jack and I to this panel as well. Jack is my co-host of Strictly Country's Friday night radio show Around The Campfire. Jack served in the United States Army, is a fan and a great aficionado of Rock, Country and Bluegrass music. As for myself, for over twenty-three years I have been the owner, operator and Editor in chief of Strictly Country magazine.
Now that you know our panel of experts, let's get on to the the subject of the art of songwriting. The next question we asked our panel was this - It seems to me that a song has to be written using one equation or it must fit in a certain box. Why is this?
If you look back into the history of music at all of the songs that became popular, most were written outside this box and did not have an exact measurement that is considered cookie cutter style. In today's music, one can listen to a new song and know exactly how it will end as it is written using a precise formula.
"There is a formula...this is the beat, and this is the feel and it has to be under three minutes, it has to be this...It always has been some what of a formula." shares Brink. "Because, people like structure...they don't like the free form stuff. As a listener you want a verse and a chorus; and you want structure. But these days, people sit down and they write the same, same, same. They don't let the song dictate to what it needs. They try to write to the form, rather than the song."
One can compare songwriting to cooking. A good chef will follow someone's recipe to the exact measurement. However, a great chef will always deviate from that recipe while adding or subtracting ingredients.
"For every rule that you've ever heard about songwriting, there is a big hit song that broke it." tells Judy. "I think of it a lot like I think of college. College to me is a place that you learn the rules so you know how to intelligently break them. That's the way I feel about songwriting courses, songwriting books and songwriting learning structure and that kind of stuff. Learn the rules... learn the rules of poetry... learn what every body is saying is the right thing to do...because if you unintelligently break the rules, it's just a dumb song. But if you intelligently break the rules, then it can be brilliantly outside the box and be unique and just a break out-saying that it's new! But it breaks the rules in an artful and intelligent way...what I did is dissect songs for years and I think that is one of the best ways to learn to write is to dissect your favorite songs. Ask yourself what the structure is? Ask yourself what the point is? Who are they talking too? Instead of just reading the rules, actually look at the hit songs and then you are reading the rules in a more professional way; in a more current music market. What did the ones [songs] work do?"
Who sets these rules? Is there a songwriting police out there that dictates what should and should not be written? Does every song written admit to following these rules?
"I think we have become programmed by what radio will play." shares Donna. "So if you get much over three minutes then you're in trouble. To make it efficient, you try to get as much information in three minutes which tends to lead to a couple of verses, a chorus and a bridge, maybe some channels depending on how your verses run."
"There always has to be a beginning, a middle and an end and it's got to be within a three minute limit." adds Rick.
Who says? Radio?
"Some of my favorite songs are songs that are not played on the radio." shares Jack. "One of the longest songs was recorded by Rush called "2112" and it clocks in just like the title says - twenty-one minutes and twelve seconds! They are done by master musicians who can capture your attention, even though it's a long song. If you haven't listen to it - you should listen to it. I'm also a big fan of instrumentals! One of my favorites is by a southern rock band called The Allman Brothers called 'Jessica.'"
Which reminds us that back in the day, songs would often involve a nice instrumental break within the structure of the song. Why do today's songs lack these beautiful instrumentals? Why have we banned this?
"There are exceptions. I have... Rick and I have written quite a few four to five minute songs. If you are writing to be a commercial writer, to get your stuff on radio - I think that's just kind of a rule or a way of thinking. If you out write it, do a four to five minute song, the chances of it getting on the radio become really profound." adds Donna.
Sure there are exceptions and those exceptions have proven to become great hits. Take a look at Johnny Cash's 1976 hit "One Piece At A Time." This Number One hit clocks in at four minutes. Where as Deana Carter's 1996 hit song, "Strawberry Wine," clocks in at just under five minutes. Radio stations have embraced both of these songs in their time and are still played today.
One of the most popular songs that has graced radio comes from the rock group Queen called "Bohemian Rhapsody." This is one song that has broken all of the rules in songwriting as it clocks in at a little over five minutes. But, most of all it really does not encompass a structure. In fact, most people still do not fully understand the story within the lyrics even today.
Time may not always be the issue when it comes to songwriting. One of the more popular songs in Rock, "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane, clocks in at only two minutes and thirty-one seconds.
Take a look at today's country music. Can you think of any song that does not follow these rules? Listen to some of your favorite old songs, do they deviate from what radio calls the norm of today's country music?
"The listeners, I think, were more into actually listening." adds Brink. "When you listen to a Johnny Cash song, you could sing along and knew every word and knew what it meant. Now, it seems like it's for dancing and selling beer. It's so commercialized that they have taken the heart and soul out of it. It's just mainly to go out and party, dance and there's a place for that. I don't say there's not a place for that. But, the soulful stuff, the feel and the statements and saying something that means something; have a little meat in the song...has gotten less, and less, and less."
Which makes us appreciate songwriters like Brink, Judy, Donna and Rick; for they are among the few that continue to write with heart and soul in the body of their songs. If radio and record labels would wake up to realize that majority of the listeners welcome and support those types of songs, perhaps this industry would make a more profitable come back. As is, radio with a major help from the record labels are destroying what is a extensive part of each of our lives by creating a substandard product. Back in the day, music was a major art form. Today, music is controlled by a selected few - thus losing the true Art of Songwriting.
Tune into the next issue as we explore more in regards to songwriting.
(This article was printed in the July / August 2016 issue of Strictly Country Magazine.)
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